Nigeria’s President, Bola Ahmed Tinubu will depart Nigeria on Sunday for New York, United States to attend the Annual Meeting of World Leaders, the United Nations General Assembly, UNGA78.
The theme for the 78th session which opened on Tuesday 5th of September is: “Rebuilding Trust and reigniting global solidarity: Accelerating Action on the 2030 Agenda and its Sustainable Development Goals towards Peace, prosperity, progress and the Sustainability for All”
Addressing State House Correspondents on the Nigerian President’s schedule and priorities in New York, his Special Adviser on Media and Publicity, Ajuri Ngelale said that the main focus of President Tinubu at the General debates is to promote Nigeria’s economy.
Ngelale emphasised that the Nigerian leader will hold bilateral meetings on the sidelines of the World leaders’ debates with the President of the United States, Comoros South Africa, the President of the European Union Commission, the Prime Minister of the Netherlands, the King of Jordan and with the Algerian President.
He said that “President Tinubu will also engage the Brazilian President as well as the Spanish Prime Minister on attracting foreign direct investment in Nigeria.
“President Tinubu will be having investment at the front and centre of his conversations with his counterparts around the world. And these engagements include bilateral meetings on the sidelines with the President of the United States, the president of Comoros, the President of South Africa the President of the European Union Commission, the Prime Minister of the Netherlands, the King of Jordan, with the Algerian president with the Brazilian president and with the Spanish Prime Minister.”
He further said that “the Nigerian President will hold meetings with major Chief Executives and leaders of Multinational firms cutting across multiple sectors of the economy.”
On Nigeria’s technology and strengthening smart use of technologies for Micro Small and Medium Enterprises, Ngelale stated that President Tinubu would meet the President of the Microsoft Company worldwide, Brad Smith, Sir Nick Clegg, the President of Global Affairs for meta technologies, and other well known International technology companies.
He further said that “this is to ensure that Nigeria’s MSMEs gain access to the internet as well as smart technologies that will facilitate their ability to transact business quickly and efficiently.”
“Mr President will also be meeting with Sir Nick Clegg, who is the President of Global Affairs for meta technologies. That is expected to be a wide-ranging conversation concerning how we can leverage innovations, such as artificial intelligence and certain other applications to impact the way we do business in Nigeria,’’ he said.
Ngelale insisted that President Tinubu is determined to create visibility for the Nigerian MSMEs Ngelale.
He said that the Nigerian leader would position the opportunities provided by the MSMEs to make an impact in foreign markets.
“Yes, the President is focused on attracting foreign direct investment, attracting jobs, attracting new tax revenues into the shores of our country, but he’s also focused on making sure that homegrown Nigerian companies have a fair and equal access to foreign and international markets,” Ngelale said.
To boost Nigeria’s Energy Sector, Ngelale said that President Tinubu would meet the Chief Executive Officer of General Electric, a well-known International Organisation with deep involvement in the energy sector, electric power generation, aviation, engine production, for multiple modes of transportation, amongst many other inputs.
On his outline of major interaction, is the opportunity the Nigerian leader would cease to boost the Gas sector of Nigeria as he meets the global CEO of Exxon Mobil Oil and Gas Company.
The President’s Spokesperson said this would enhance the implementation of the Petroleum Industry Act and the fiscal and tax incentives that are being forwarded by President Tinubu.
“To further advance investment in the Oil and Gas sector not just in terms of oil, we see a major opportunity to once again lay out in detail what Nigeria has to offer concerning the implementation of the Petroleum Industry Act and the fiscal and tax incentives to further advance investment in the oil and gas sector. The President is looking closely at what we can do in the deep offshore and some of the associated opportunities in that sphere. Again, these are just one-on-one meetings with these delegates,” he explained.
The Special Adviser to the President further said that President Tinubu would be speaking at the UN High-Level reform of the global financial architecture.
According to him, this will allow the Nigerian President to lay out his vision for a fairer international financial system that no longer leaves out developing countries from the decision-making table.
On Sustainable Development Goals, the Nigerian President will be actively participating at the UN Secretary General’s Climate Ambition Summit.
During the summit, he will be laying out his plans in concrete detail for Nigeria’s energy transition and the role the partners in the business community and foreign governments and non-governmental organizations will play in the actualization of Nigeria’s ambition to get to net zero by 2060.
Mercy Chukwudiebere
